Serious questions loom as the Biden administration and the Pentagon struggle to explain how highly classified U.S. documents ended up in the hands of Iranians.
Earlier this week, top secret U.S. documents on a possible Israeli counter-strike against Iran began appearing on Tehran-affiliated social media channels. The documents show classified U.S. satellite imagery and intelligence assessment on an impending Israeli military retaliation to the October 1 Iranian missile strike.
The document, belonging to “National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which is responsible for analyzing images and information collected by American spy satellites,” contained details of Israeli “military drills and weapons placement” in the run-up to a possible counter-strike against Iran,” The New York Times reported Saturday.
“The documents, which offer interpretations of satellite imagery, provide insight into a potential strike by Israel on Iran in the coming days,” the NYT added.
The leaked documents “are marked top secret and have markings indicating they are meant to be seen only by the US and its “Five Eyes” allies — Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom,” CNN reported Sunday. “They describe preparations Israel appears to be making for a strike against Iran.
The Associated Press on Sunday reported details of the intel leak:
The United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents that assess Israel’s plans to attack Iran, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press. A fourth U.S. official said the documents appear to be legitimate.The documents are attributed to the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, and note that Israel was still moving military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran’s blistering ballistic missile attack on Oct. 1. They were sharable within the “Five Eyes,” which are the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.The documents, which are marked top secret, were posted to the Telegram messaging app and first reported by CNN and Axios. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.The investigation is also examining how the documents were obtained — including whether it was an intentional leak by a member of the U.S. intelligence community or obtained by another method, like a hack — and whether any other intelligence information was compromised, one of the officials said. As part of that investigation, officials are working to determine who had access to the documents before they were posted, the official said. (…)In a statement, the Pentagon said it was aware of the reports of the documents but did not have further comment.
The documents, leaked to an Iranian-affiliated Telegram channel, were allegedly provided by a ‘source’ within the U.S. national security apparatus. “The leak occurred on Friday when the Middle East Spectator Telegram channel claimed it had received documents about Israel’s strike preparations from a source within the US intelligence community. This Telegram channel is known for publishing pro-Iranian propaganda, and its associated Twitter account states that its operators are based in Iran,” the Jerusalem Post reported Sunday.
The intelligence breach comes as the Biden-Harris administration is pressuring Israel to limit the scope of the Israeli counter-strike against Iran. “Washington has sought to temper Jerusalem’s plans to retaliate for the October 1 attack — which forced most of the country to rush to bomb shelters and safe rooms and killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank — fearing that the escalating tit-for-tats could spark a wider war, drawing in others in the region,” The Times of Israel noted Sunday. “It has urged Israel not to strike Iran’s nuclear or oil facilities.”
On October 1, Iran fired over 180 missiles, including long-range ballistic ones, into Israel. The massive Iranian aerial attack was followed by Saturdays’s drone strike by Iran-backed Hezbollah on the private home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The leak was first reported by Axios on Saturday.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) continued hitting Hezbollah’s terror targets and decimating its command structure across Lebanon. On Sunday morning, Israeli jets “conducted an intelligence-based strike on a command center of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters and an underground weapons workshop in Beirut,” the IDF said in a press statement.
The Israeli Air Force also “struck and eliminated the terrorist Al-Haj Abbas Salama in the area of Tebnine, a senior commander in Hezbollah’s Southern Front. Salama oversaw combat in the Bint Jbeil area and executed many terror attacks against the State of Israel. Furthermore, Salama served in a number of positions in Hezbollah’s Southern Front over the years,” the Israeli military disclosed “Additionally, the terrorists Rada Abbas Awada and Ahmad Ali Hussein were eliminated. Awada was a senior Hezbollah communications expert and Hussein served as the head of a weapons manufacturing unit that was responsible for the build-up of Hezbollah’s strategic weaponry, following in-depth manufacturing training in Iran.”
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY